After riding out Irma, Udonis Haslem joins Erik Spoelstra, Nick Arison to help South Florida’s pet population

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, captain Udonis Haslem with dogs that were flown to the Bay Area to help make room in South Florida shelters (Photo Tom D’Angelo)

MIAMI – Leave it to the Captain and the Heat’s only Miami native to ride out Hurricane Irma.

While the rest of his teammates were evacuating, Udonis Haslem remained in his Southwest Ranches home with his family and three dogs.

“It’s not that I don’t respect the power of Mother Nature because I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mother Nature,” Haslem said. “But I built a bunker. I paid a lot of money for it. I’m going down with my ship.”

Haslem, like many, was spared with the most damage coming to his trees and fence. My yard took a beating,” he said. So he did what most of us have been doing for the last three days, rolled up his sleeves and went to work.

“It’s been a long time since I did that kind of work,” he said. “I just saw everybody in my neighborhood cleaning out trees and I said ‘Let me get out there and clean out my trees.’

“Why not?”

But Haslem knew his work was not done even when he finished cutting and dragging tree limbs to the curb. Before the storm hit he had called around informing the Heat and anyone else that he was available to be called into action.

On Friday, Haslem, coach Erik Spoelstra, CEO Nick Arison and several Heat employees helped load 150 pets into crates at Miami International Airport so they could be transported to Oakland, Calif., where members of the Golden State Warriors were waiting to unload the pets. Haslem, an admitted animal lover who said he walked his three dogs as much as he could during the storm, assisted in giving the dogs a little outdoors time before their flight took off.

The pets were being transported to Bay Area shelters to make room in the Miami area shelters for pets abandoned during Irma.

“There are so many areas that need help,” Spoelstra said. “This is an area that often gets forgotten, the displaced animals, and some of the horrific stories about animals getting left behind in the storm. Many of the animals would have been euthanized this weekend.”

Carnival Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Arison’s company, and the Miami Heat Charitable Fund are each pledging to raise a combined $5 million in funding for relief and recovery efforts. The Arisons will match that commitment up to a total of $5 million, including the organization’s initial $2.5 million donation, bringing the total to $10 million.

“(They) don’t know any different,” Spoelstra said. “I’ve seen their example. And the Arison family has been so deeply rooted in the community for so long that as soon as something happens they activate and they get everybody else motivated to do something.”

Spoelstra was behind many of his players leaving town, saying he made the suggestion, especially considering most had never experienced a hurricane.

Spoelstra and his wife, Nikki, evacuated their Coconut Grove home. They returned to find it in good shape.

“It doesn’t make you more courageous to stay. I think we all learned a lesson from Houston,” he said, referring to Hurricane Harvey. “If you can get out early and secure your house and secure your properties discretion is the better part of valor oftentimes.

“I think we were all very fortunate with this storm but I think the numbers were roughly 7 million that evacuated. That was the smart thing to do. Once everybody is able to come back safely now we all have to lace up our boots and get to work and build back this community.”